Seven kits for performing new domestic rituals.
These acts — involving gestures, words, or objects, performed according to a set sequence — were developed in workshops that considered how rituals are part of daily life and an important way we make meaning. In different ways they explore how the home can become a site for rites of passage, dedications, oaths of allegiance or actions that neutralise anxiety.
These new rituals were devised and written by workshop participants in ArtHouses Home Actions in Whitley Bay:
Catrin Huber, Helen Frankenberg, Holly Argent, Karen Russell, Leah Buehrmann, Megan John, Melanie Colbey, Mick Ashman, Nat Loftus, Neil Sabin, Rob Smith, Sarah Sutton, Sophie Buxton, Sue Spark, Susi Pethybridge, Giulia Ausenda-Stanford, Kirsty Rosenstock, Gen Mungo, Cindy Robinson-Begg, Giles Bailey, Abigail Fletcher and Molly Sale.
In some cases the rituals refer to undefined ‘objects’ or ‘items.’ These can be performed with a selection of your own objects in whatever quantity feels appropriate.
The work has been exhibited as part of “Vessels & Catastrophes” at MÉLANGE, Cologne curated by Haris Giannouras.
The Tea Universe rituals are shared as kits for live performance and collected as a publication.
Photographs of kits by Jade Sweeting
Photographs of workshops and performances by Rob Smith